More Poor Kids in More Poor Places: Children Increasingly Live Where Poverty Persists

From the Carsey Institute, this issue brief provides a comprehensive picture of child poverty using Census data from 1980, 1990 and 2000, coupled with American Community Survey data from 2005 and 2009. Data reveal that child poverty is persistent in nearly twice as many U.S. counties as those that report high persistent poverty across all age groups. Rural areas are disproportionately likely to have persistent high child poverty as 26 percent of rural children reside in counties with high poverty rates, as compared to 12 percent of urban children.